iBook, Applecare…

It looks as though Napster DRM for its new Music to Go service has been successfully cracked. Actually Napster is using a DRM scheme developed by Microsoft (proud producer of XP service Pack 3 AKA Longhorn) called Janus. This doesn’t mean much to Mac users because Music to Go won’t run on the Mac. I’m betting that Napster doesn’t have that many clients to begin with so I doubt it means very much to very many people. But, if you are a Napster user of dubious ethics, then it means you can sign up for the free trial and keep all the songs you download without ever having to pay their monthly fee.

Actually the fact that the DRM was cracked is only news in the broadest sense. It is news like: fish are still swimming or the sun came up, something you knew was going to happen and wouldn’t take very long. Apple’s Fairplay DRM has been cracked as well in numerous ways so there was really no reason to think that the Janus DRM would hold up for any length of time. I guess the only question is: Will this cause people to migrate to Music to Go in droves?

On the one hand I can see the allure: gigabytes of music you can listen to forever for one (or no) fee. Of course there are plenty of file sharing programs out there were you can already get plenty of free music without having to go through Napster’s onerous signup process. (Here I assume the process is more onerous than using a P2P program, being a Mac user I’m not really sure because I can’t try out MTG.) So the net effect on iTunes will likely be very small because the people who want to be legitimate won’t hack the DRM and the people who want free music aren’t using iTunes anyway.

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Time for blog fodder:

Could it be, could it actually be? Yes it is! A link sent by Bailey! And pretty funny too.
State of the Union…Not so good
It’s a video remix. I wouldn’t watch it if you’re Bush fan. Ah, a Bailey link, seems like old times (sniff)

Addictive game:
Tower Blaster

Apple expands to home furnishings: Enter the itoilet Obviously this is an old gag but I hadn’t seen it before.

Celebrity American Idol I got this anonymously. I can see why it isn’t all that great but the Ashlee Simpson part is pretty good,

Yesterday I received a Hello Kitty lip balm deal. I’ve no idea who sent it or how they found my address. The postmark indicated the vile thing was mailed from Indiana and I don’t know anyone who lives in Indiana. Frightening. In any event I’ll put up a picture tomorrow but for now I leave you with the Hello Kitty daily message:

HELLO KITTY SAYS SEIBOLD WILL BE MY BEEEYOTCHHHHHH.

I had some weirdness with my iBook. My specific complaints were:
Wouldn’t boot (I got it to boot with a 10.3 install)
Wouldn’t update after the install (stuck 44% optimization..for days)
TechTool reported a media error (-4, one worse than -3 I suppose)
The most vexing thing was that Airport would only work if the screen was between 45-70 degrees. If opened to, say, 90 degrees forget it.

Sent it in (with an erased hard drive) and Apple sent it back. They kept the powercord. Well that’s a problem. Computer booted in an odd fashion (network, then 9 then X no matter how many times you selected and locked X as the startup disk). I could live with that but the airport thing wasn’t fixed and my powercord was sitting in an Apple repair shop somewhere.

Called Apple. Tech support guy was very nice and very apologetic. I think I could have wrangled a freebie (of some sort) if I would’ve complained loudly but I didn’t make the tech support guy’s day any tougher than it needed to be. Remained patient, went through the whole process again. Found out they had replaced the logic board the last time it went in. Guess that wasn’t the culprit.

Now I’m wondering just how much is this cluster going to cost Apple? I would really like a G4 iBook, maybe I should complained loudly and asked to trade my iBook in for a AppleStore credit. I get a few bucks towards a new computer, they save the repair cost, everyone is happy.

On the other hand the guy did seem really grateful I didn’t go ballistic on him so I feel good about that. Still the iBook is out of commision (again) for a week or so and that bites. It’s probably the third time my iBook has been in the shop in 2 years, which would outrage me if my wife didn’t have a Dell. Her computer has been to the shop a dozen times during the same period. Hey, I feel lucky.

Oh, and just to prove i’m not a superdickhead all the time: When the guy asked me what I did (during a reboot) I didn’t try to go for the special fake press deal and say “I write for MyMac and I just got a gig as a tech columnist in the local newspaper.” I said “I watch a lot of cable”

Misc Personal Ramblings
Sorry about your friend KP, Good luck TR, TML: I await the return of the trademark sunglasses and jetta the terrapin